San Gabriel Valley Digest

San Gabriel : Clinton Not on This Ballot

Bad news for President Clinton. The San Gabriel Unified School District will not consider naming its first high school after him.

A majority of more than 60 students and local residents who responded to a district request for high school names suggested Clinton's. But a district committee decided it is too soon to use the name of the five-month president.

Three names will be chosen for a ballot that will appear in the district newsletter later this year. Ballots are also available from school district headquarters, 102 E. Broadway, San Gabriel.

The names under consideration are:

* John Adams High School. Adams was the first president to move into the White House and signed the Declaration of Independence.

* Benjamin Franklin High School. He signed the Declaration of Independence and invented the lightning rod, among other things.

* Thomas Jefferson High School. He was the third President of the United States and drafted the Declaration of Independence.

* Robert Freeman High School. He is an artist whose mural of Native American life hangs in the San Gabriel Library.

* George Patton High School. Patton was a World War II general who attended San Gabriel Elementary School.

* Gabrielino High School. The Gabrielino Indians are a local Native American tribe.

* Presidential High School. The name would stand for all presidents.

The high school will be built on the grounds of Jefferson Intermediate School at 1440 Lafayette St.